Holy Spirit You Channel Podcast: Waiting on vs. Waiting For. Isaiah 40.31.
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Hi, thank you for joining the Holy Spirit You channel podcast. One of the most significant scriptures where they’re all significant. But in this time and in this season and I believe for quite some time, one of the major things that hangs us up around scripture in general, let me start there around scripture in general, is that we misinterpret scripture, and I don’t mean surgical exegesis of the scripture. I mean just in day-to-day application of scripture, instead of us really listening to the Lord and for the Lord, we expect to be fed the word instead of seeking God for ourselves and allowing Holy Spirit to illuminate his word in a way that is accurate.
It’s not that leaders aren’t accurate, it’s just that in the daily application of those things, it is the Holy Spirit that has to lead us. I say that to say that one of the most significant scriptures that I believe we have misinterpreted for quite some time is the they that wait scripture and I believe it is tied to a lot of the challenge and the lack of growth and the division, the different social issues and challenges that the church is facing are tied to our inability to be led of the Holy Spirit in such a way where we are actually living out the scripture, not just talking about the scripture.
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To that point, they that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. I’m not going to read the whole thing. I’m going to start with just that. That’s the first sentence. They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength on means or wait on.
When you go to a restaurant, you have a server or multiple servers that are waiting on you, meaning their job is to focus on you, your needs, your order, making sure that everything is right, making sure that you have a good experience, making sure that everything that you have paid for or are paying for is in order.
Waiting on waiting for means I’m awaiting the arrival of something, a person, place or thing. I’m waiting to get there. I’m waiting for it to come to me. I’m waiting for the train, I’m waiting for the bus. I’m waiting for my family to get here for the holidays.
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I’m waiting for the opportunity one. The difference is that one is very one-on-one interactive, relational. Someone who is waiting on you has to know you, has to get to know you unless you’ve been to a restaurant before and you know that particular server, that transaction of about an hour or two, they are getting to know you. They’re waiting on you. It’s interactive, it’s active, it’s proactive, it’s relational.
Waiting for is passive, non-relational. Nobody has to get to know anybody and we are not engaged in a way that helps us to grow. The scripture does not say they that wait for the Lord. The scripture says, King James version says they that wait on the Lord.
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The scripture says they that wait on not for the Lord. So in hearing this, is that what you’re doing? Are you serving the Lord the way?
I know many of you expect people to serve you when you’re going into a restaurant sometimes with attitude, not the server you, because they didn’t get your order right, they didn’t do what you need them to do. I’m glad God doesn’t do that to us because the goal is for us in that transaction in the not the relationship being transactional, that’s not a relationship, it’s a transaction. But in that series of little events that happen when we sit down at a table intent on getting a specific meal with or without, it doesn’t matter whether you eat alone or whether you eat with a group. The principle is the same.
There is still the expectation when I come into the door that I am going to be served, that you are going to be served and that the things that you ask for will be brought to you. Not only that, and there is a way to do this nicely by the way. For those of you that don’t subscribe to that, there is a way to say, I’m sorry, this is not what I ordered or I’m sorry, I thought I would like this. I don’t without demeaning or diminishing anyone.
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So there’s that opportunity. Why? Because we paid for something. So now take that and apply it to you being the server of the Lord, not servant. Because when we say servant, we have too many religious things tied to that. Right now I’m talking about the relationship, the interaction between you and God in the name of Jesus and by the power of Holy Spirit, are you the serve to the Lord? Are you waiting on him or are you waiting for him?
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And depending on your answer, that’ll tell you a lot about where your relationship is and why it’s the way it is. Because we think we have to have an event. We have to, other people have to be involved. We have to be doing outreach. We have to be doing unquote ministry. The greatest ministry we do is to the Lord himself, the unseen person that’s always in the room, the God that is unseen yet very present.
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That’s the greatest aspect of our ministry. We can do nothing apart from him. And if we think that we are, we need to reexamine how he thinks about that. If we don’t have members, by the way the members are of his body, if we don’t have members, if we don’t have participation, once we do have members, if we don’t have, it’s because we haven’t determined that our first ministry is serving the Lord himself, treating him as if he’s sitting at the table and it is our job to get to know him. What is his order? What is he like? What did he pay for with his own blood?
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So I challenge you today, some of the greatest things that trip us up are the smallest things, particularly when it comes to the word of God. The biggest things that trip us up when it comes to God are the smallest words in the Bible on for if as forgive us, our deaths as we forgive, meaning we’re not forgiving. If we don’t forgive. That’s contract language. It’s called fine print, but it’s right there in our faces.
So if we’re not forgiving, we want to treat that segueing just a little bit side barring, if we don’t forgive, we’re not forgiven. He says, forgive us our debts, the prayer or the model for prayer, the outline for prayer, what we need to accomplish through prayer, what we need to say, spirit, soul, and body through prayer that Jesus gave us says, forgive us our debts as and because we’ve memorized it, we blow by that whole thing.
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So one of the things that I want to say is if you are thinking you’re forgiven, but you’re not forgiving, you need to rethink that because that’s not what it says. That’s not what Jesus taught. You’re serving the Lord. It’s what he says, not what we decided meant, decided it meant. It’s what he said, not what is convenient.
It’s what he said, not what society is telling us we can or cannot do or should or shouldn’t do. It’s what he said. What is your order? What is it that you like? How can I help you? Is there anything else I can do for you?
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We don’t have to wait for the Lord. Why? Because he’s always present even when we are doing things that are far from what we should be doing to him that knows to do good and does it not to him and to her it is sin. So it doesn’t matter how we classify it. He’s already outlined all of that. Galatians five, he’s already outlined all of that. We’re still talking about it instead of just doing the things he told us to do to overcome those things. This isn’t about who sin is the greatest or most obvious. We all have sin. That is the whole premise of anything we do here.
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What he says is, well, if you do these things, then you’ll overcome that and you’ll get to be with me in eternity. So I’m going to help you. I’m going to deliver you. But your obedience, your deliverance is tied to your obedience, serving the Lord, waiting on him.
We have made this into such a hot mess because we have had our interpretations of what we want that to mean. Me serving you is not necessarily me serving the Lord and vice versa. I can make it look like a lot of things, but at the end of the day, the judge is the Lord waiting on him, not for him. How do you wait for somebody that’s already there?
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How do you wait for a person that is already there? What are you waiting for them to do? Particularly when we talk about God, but when we take the approach that even in this room right now, God is present, then our posture should shift, and if it doesn’t, then that means we have a faith problem that we don’t believe that God is and a rewarder of those that diligently seek him.
The seeking is tied to the serving. We’re not seeking him because he’s not present. We’re seeking him because we don’t know him. The instructions that we are given are not tied to who God is in the strictest sense. They’re tied to what we need to do to find him to know him. You can be in a room with people and not know them, so you have to seek them out.
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You have to make it intentional. You have to be purposeful about how you know those who labor among you. And I’ve heard it said, and I find it very ironic. You’re not waiting on God, God’s waiting on you. I’ve heard it over the years too many times to count.
First of all, he’s not waiting on us. Let me just be clear. He’s not waiting on us. He’s already given his instruction. Time is still marching on. So if he was waiting on us or for us, let me put it that way. You’re not waiting for God. God’s waiting for you. Let me rephrase that. If he was waiting for us, then time wouldn’t be moving. He’s not waiting for us.
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He desires for us to get it, to get it to click and to get on it in terms of our obedience. Many of you, even right in this moment are crying out to the Lord for deliverance, but you will not obey him. You will not even take the first step and sometimes the first step is just saying, Lord have mercy. Sometimes the first step is just falling on your knees. Sometimes the first step is saying, Lord, I want to forgive, but I need your help. Sometimes the first step is saying, I’m having a problem with all of this.
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God does not expect perfection from us. He’s the only perfect being. So that’s not what he’s looking for. He’s looking for our desire and our intent to obey. He will help us get there. Sometimes he’s just looking for us to sit still long enough to even get a clue about who he is rather than hanging out or going to everybody else to find out who he is, waiting on the Lord.
I have to get to know him. I have to sit or stand before him. I have to stand at the table, kneel at the table where he sits. I have to kneel at his feet and allow him. I have to humble myself. You have to humble yourself and allow him to bring you up, getting to know him and his way, waiting on not for the Lord. So if your strength is depleted, if you’re depressed, if you’re disappointed, if you’re having trouble in your relationships, it doesn’t matter what kind of relationship it is. If you are feeling less than loved, if you are feeling like you don’t have a place in this world, if you’re going to church or not going to church and you can’t seem to find the answer, try waiting on the Lord and being honest about what you’re bringing. Lord, I know I’m supposed to do this, but be on your knees when you say it. The first step is repentance.
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Part of serving the Lord is repenting of your evil way, our evil way as humans, and then going before him. I don’t know what to do next. He’s okay with that. He’s not fragile. Please get out of this thing of thinking that God is fragile so he can die for the whole world, make a way for us to have access into heaven that we would’ve never had. But he can’t handle you or all of us at the same time when he died for all, he’s not fragile. He’s just waiting for us to be honest about who we are or are not being intentional and authentic about bringing those things to him so that he can take care of it. We’ve made enough of a mess and he will sit right there and let us make it until we get to the point of saying, I’m tired of me.
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I am sick of myself. And sometimes it comes to that more than once in your lifetime, but the next place to go after that is, I repent. Lord, help me. It doesn’t matter where you are in your life or where you think you are in your ministry, these principles apply no matter what. It doesn’t even matter what religion God is always waiting for, waiting for us in the sense that he’ll let us go until we get it together, but he’s not stopping time for us.
Please don’t think that God is not waiting. Nope. Everything else is continuing to go and we can determine the degree to which we align with what he has for us, what he desires for us. He can desire it, but we have to engage in order for it to come to pass. He can’t give you somebody else’s blessing, right?
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So you are looking at someone else being blessed. First of all, congratulate them if you know them or just go to the Lord and say, Lord, I praise you for that blessing. Because what happens when you do that is you do sow a seed, right? So that C will expand and come back to you, but not if you’re not obedient.
We miss the whole part about this is between us and God, and by us I mean individually because he’s the one. As members, we have to go to God individually. We go to him privately. That is how the collective becomes powerful. The collective never becomes powerful if the members are not individually being empowered by the Spirit.
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If you don’t have a cross in your church, why? If you’re not preaching the infilling and leading of the Holy Spirit in and out of the church, why waiting on the Lord, Jesus said, if you love me, you will obey my commandments. You will do what I say. And particularly in this society, we have such a challenge with that because there have been such abuses of power, but God is not that abuser.
There is an accuser, but God is not an abuser. So we have to individually and then collectively get over ourselves and understand that the walk of faith is indeed a walk of faith. We have to wait on serve the Lord, not serve everybody else thinking that his ministry serve him first. He’ll tell you who to minister to. You may or may not know them. You may or may not sit in church with them. You may or may not even be going to church. It doesn’t matter.
God is not measuring this thing the way that we do because we don’t have all the pieces and we won’t have the things that we individually need to do unless we are waiting on the Lord. Lord, how can I serve you today? First and foremost, I come before you and I repent. I worship you. I honor you. I lift you high because you are exalted.
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Be glorified in the heavens. Be glorified in the earth as it is in heaven. Let it be not just on the earth, but in this earth, in this earth and vessel. How can I help you today, sir? And even in that moment, if you don’t specifically hear the voice of the Lord in that moment, at least you were intentional and when he begins to speak, you have set yourself up to hear him.
And when you get into a practice, it doesn’t even have to be a hundred percent, but if you get up and eat or able to get up every morning, you have at least a few minutes, even if you’re not on your knees to say, Lord, I repent. I exalt you. Thank you Jesus. I’m running late for work. I’m going to be moving quick, but I’m paying attention. Come on now.
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So let’s stop playing with it.
They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength, not the ones that are having cute sayings about, well, you’re not waiting for the Lord, the Lord’s waiting for you, or vice versa, whatever it is.
First of all, that’s not even right. He’s not waiting. Time is moving, and none of us know how much time we have. Why? Because God is in control. The selfexistent eternal one, holy one, the one that does not discriminate, no respect to a person, although sometimes it looked like he is.
Let’s be honest, that’s what God is looking for. He is the one that set all of this in motion. We didn’t have a right to interpret what he says.
The word of God is not subject to interpretation. I think there’s even penalty for it. I’m not looking at the scripture, but I even think that there’s a penalty for that heaven on earth.
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How are we going to get heaven on earth?
Because we thinking, you know what we’re thinking. We think we have to die to get to heaven. He’s saying, no. If you just do what I tell you, you can have heaven on earth. It doesn’t mean some of us won’t transition. I came pretty close to it, so that’s not what he’s saying.
He’s saying, you can actually have heaven on earth. You don’t have to wait to transition. You can actually have it now, but we can’t get enough of us. I can’t just be heaven by myself. You can’t be heaven. He has to move through all of us to create that. That’s why he says, let Holy Spirit lead you. That’s why Jesus left, because Jesus said, if I don’t go, the gift can’t come. We’re in the dispensation of the gift have been for more than 2000 years and we still, this is what we got.
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This is where we are because we haven’t fully received the gift.
I don’t mean speaking in tongues without any effectuation of that. There’s still got to be, and some days you’re not going to feel it. Some days you’re just going to almost abhor it to be honest. Why? Because when light comes, darkness is like, oh, all over us because we have both in us, the warring spirits within us, and so there is a battle, and some days you’re not going to feel like repenting or getting on your knees. You’re going to feel like being rebellious, and that’s when you have to remember the word of God. Repent.
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So I want to challenge you today to reexamine this thing you call faith, or if you call yourself a Christian, I don’t call myself a Christian anymore. I am believer in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I promise you that, but I’m going to let him give me his name. I’m not going to take his name in vain, which many have done and are still doing. You want to call yourself by his name, but your fruit looks like from another. We wonder why he calls us an idolatrous and adulterous generation. It’s in the Old Testament, but guess what? It applies to the new extent that we do those things.
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They that wait on serve directly, interact directly with come boldly before the throne of God. That’s who we’re supposed to be. That’s where we’re supposed to be.
If we want power, I don’t mean power for the sake of power. I am talking about Holy Spirit led power, meaning there’s not going to be any abuse of power. There’s not going to be anyone lording it over another whether they look like us or agree with us or not. Then we have to get this principle that waiting on the Lord is not waiting for the Lord. He’s always present. Unfortunately, we are not.
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So be intentional about this. If you are serious about deliverance, whatever your thing is or things are, doesn’t matter.
We want to call out people’s sin, but we are not dealing with the stuff we got in closets and storage units. That’s not what this is about. It says in the Bible, they will know us by our love when we come together.
We’re not trying to Lord something over another person. There is one Lord and he has invited all. So treating him in a way that makes it look like he’s discriminatory is a sin and a violation of covenant.
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I had somebody that wanted to argue with me using scripture, and we wonder why people don’t want to know Jesus, that God did not love unconditionally.
Lemme tell you something, if God didn’t love unconditionally, we wouldn’t even be having this conversation. He would’ve already blown us out of here.
The point is, and I will share that another time, not the details, but I will share why God is a God of unconditional love in detail. All I’m going to say right now is that if he was not all of us would’ve already been gone 2000 years. What? The gift would’ve never come. So we’re in the dispensation, father in creation, son in manifestation and demonstration, holy Spirit and transformation.
He’d been trying to transform us for 2000 years or giving us opportunities. God doesn’t try. He’s been giving us opportunities to transform for at least 2000 years whenever the gift was sent, the day of Pentecost, which we like to celebrate.
Interestingly enough, we want to talk about the day of Pentecost. We should be living in the day of Pentecost actively then a lot of the things that we’re seeing in our society, we would not be seeing. Why? Because the Lord is here. Not you, not me. The Lord is here, fitly joining his body together, that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength.
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That wait on the Lord shall renew their strength. It does not say they that wait for the Lord shall renew their strength.
Why is that? Because in those moments where we are serving the Lord directly, there’s a transference of strength. The joy of the Lord is my strength. That means it’s not my joy. That means he’s giving me joy to strengthen me. The joy of the Lord or that belongs to the Lord is my strength. It’s not my joy. It’s his joy that he transfers to me and will to you when you wait on him instead of for him. Thank you for joining me for this segment of the Holy Spirit You Channel podcast. I’ll see you next time. Bye-bye.